Buddy Tinsley

Robert Porter "Buddy" Tinsley (August 16, 1924 – September 14, 2011) was a Canadian Football League (CFL) offensive lineman for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1982, and was a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Hall of Fame, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and the Baylor University Hall of Fame.

Buddy Tinsley

Tinsley on a 1950 Bowman football card
No. 64
Position	Defensive tackle
Personal information
Born	(1924-08-16)August 16, 1924 Damon, Texas, U.S.
Died	September 14, 2011(2011-09-14) (aged 87) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Career information
College	Baylor
NFL draft	1948: 7th round, 54th overall pick
Career history
1949	Los Angeles Dons
1950–1960	Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Awards and highlights
2× Grey Cup champion (1958, 1959) 7× CFL West All-Star (1950–1952, 1955–1958) Second-team All-SWC (1947) Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (1994)
Stats at Pro Football Reference
Canadian Football Hall of Fame (Class of 1982)

Tinsley was born in Damon, Texas and played collegiately at Baylor. He spent one season with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams before joining the Blue Bombers, where he often played both ways at tackle.

He is noted for a story regarding the 38th Grey Cup, known as the "Mud Bowl" because of poor weather/field conditions. "As the legend goes, Tinsley, a rookie Bomber lineman, was face down in the muck and water, gasping for breath when an alert official pulled him from his murky grave".

Tinsley died on September 14, 2011, aged 87, from undisclosed causes, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Footnotes

1. Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame Archived July 15, 2014, at the Wayback Machine